Homeschool Spanish Lessons - Online Learning

Now my homeschool is in its infancy; my kids are nearly 3 and a bit beyond 4, which means I’m doing things like phonics, word building, drawing, and imagination building exercises. But the iPad has exceeded my expectations and is a bit of mind blowing device IMHO.  I’ve installed less than 15 apps for myself; but around 60 so far for my kids. I’m sure I’ll delete some of these as I see what they actually use, and have already found that storybooks which are static with nothing but audio – no matter how beautiful the images – are boring for them. They want to touch everything and make things happen! As an e-learning author I think I’m way behind the eight ball that I’m just discovering how incredible tablet devices are, and more importantly, how they completely change the face of e-learning.

It’s all about the touch – it brings kids into the material in a way that a mouse or pen tablet can’t. It brings material alive and makes the kids feel like they are connected to it.

I agree with several other “mom blogs” that I’m trying to be very careful about not including time wasting things, games being the main thing I’m avoiding. I’ve downloaded a couple of “dress the doll” apps that are probably pretty big time wasters, but my kids love doing the felt storyboard, and we also have a “dress the bears” wooden set that they love, so I wanted to see how that would be on the iPad.

I found a couple of adorable Firemen apps, one that teaches how to dial 911 and give them your address, among other useful things.

The phonics and word building apps are just incredible – I find that my 3 year old is dragging and sounding them out even faster than her older brother…

As I’m trying to teach my kids Italian as their first foreign language, I’ve installed every app and ebook I could find that might be useful for this, but it’s much too early to form an on opinion about how useful these are.  So far flashcard apps seem to be a real bust for kids their age – there is nothing particularly interesting about a static photo with audio, even if it flips over to show something.  Vocabulary learning apps don’t seem to hold much appeal unless they require them to actually do something with the word or letter immediately.

I know that I have to limit the time my kids spend on the iPad, as I don’t want a couple of iPad potatoes  - but I think a 1/2 hour here and there during the day should be about right for now.

So far these are the apps that have me in a awe:

Story Wheel by EverAge: Kids create their own ebook by spinning a wheel, which gives them an image they need to say something about. Each player spins the wheel a few times, adding their own piece to the story, with their own voice. Then you can play back the ebook you just created. What an awesome use of tablet technology to help get kids using their own imaginations!

Bob Books Magic Books: This one is worth buying. By far the best of the beginning book reading/phonics apps – this app gives kids exactly the interactivity they want – to click on an element in a page, have it animate, then place the letters into place one by one for that word. They make great use of black and white images which change into color once the child has correctly put the letters into their spot. Sounds out the letters as well, then reads the words the child has just completed. Awesomísimo as we say in my house!

Elmo Loves ABCs for iPad: This is also worth paying $3.99. The prices for apps seem cheap, but when you are buying a ton of them it does begin to add up. (As in, your $500 iPad just became a $600 iPad…) Any toddler who loves Elmo will have plenty of fun sounding out the letters with Elmo, and then tracing each letter in both big and little form, in a super clear vector looking font. Just beautiful.

Talking Ben: Okay so this doesn’t have much educational value, although I guess his experiments do show reactions and color mixing, but this dog is just hilarious. He mimics what the kids say and morphs their voices when he plays it back, and he responds to things like tickling his tummy and rubbing his feet. There isn’t too much to do with Ben so you don’t have to worry about them wasting all day with this one, and it will certainly make them laugh. I probably wouldn’t pay for this app but the free one is great.

Build a Word by Word World: my kids already love the show, and have had fun building words in this easy to play letter game. Worth buying for kids who are preschool age.

Kids Fireman HD: great little app that teaches toddlers how to dial 911 and say their address, as well as several cute interactive scenes that will steal the heart of any little guy or gal who loves firemen.

Things I haven’t liked so much…

Any ebook apps that are text and audio only, without actual interactivity. Many are just lovely but the bar has been upped by all of the companies creating more interactive ones! I paid for a Penguins of Madagascar ebook that was supposed to be interactive and from what I can see, is just really long and not so interactive, but maybe I’m missing the microscopic place I’m supposed to be touching for the other stuff…

Toy Story eBook… ok I got the Italian one which is even more confusing, but there is way to much text, read at way too fast a pace, for this to be useful for toddlers. The video is gorgeous and there is interactivity, but this is one that will have to wait a year or 2.

Itsy Bitsy Spider by Duck Duck Moose:  this was a disappointment – it just isn’t very interesting. I was hoping for the Kate Toms version of the book, so perhaps that is my mistake – but the spider just doesn’t do enough – and there is not a lot of learning value here. The song isn’t that appealing either. Overall the Duck Duck Moose stuff seems to be pretty awesome, so this wouldn’t stop me from trying their other titles.

The only problem with the iPad itself is that there doesn’t appear to be a software slider for the audio volume. This is a problem for me as my iPad case covers up the “down” part of the physical button… Surely my fault for buying this case but it was the best I found here in Anchorage Alaska at the local mall!

So that’s it for today! I have more work than I can get my brain around right now, so this is the last kind of blog post I should be writing, lol. But I really do think that anybody who can scrape together the $500 should get an iPad for their family – it will blow your mind a bit, and you cannot deny the educational value of some of these apps, especially if you are homeschooling. I think when used in moderation these tablet devices will help form part of a curriculum that would be hard or impossible to match in a large group setting, which is why homeschooling is so appealing to me. That said, I was delighted that I got a package from Lakeshore Learning today with a couple of word building and phonics activities. I was impressed with the audio word building activity for 4 year olds – my son enjoyed putting the pieces over the correct part of the word, and I think doing things like this hands on with the kids still has a valuable place in the learning day…